Darryl Mount is treated by emergency workers in Saratoga Springs on Aug. 31, 2013. Mount eventually died from his injuries. The photo is an exhibit in the wrongful death lawsuit brought by Mount’s mother.

Five years ago this week, a 21-year-old black man running from police in downtown Saratoga Springs ended up near the bottom of a 19-foot-tall scaffold with injuries that left him in a coma. He never fully regained consciousness, and died nine months later.

The official account of Darryl Mount Jr.’s death holds that he fell from the scaffold while fleeing police. His family has maintained that the injuries he sustained around 3 a.m. on Aug. 31, 2013, were inflicted by police and not caused by an accidental fall.

They implored the city to authorize an outside investigation. Police Chief Gregory Veitch and then-Public Safety Commissioner Christian Mathiesen repeatedly dismissed the family’s request and declared that the department’s own investigation ruled out police misconduct.

But in a sworn deposition in a lawsuit brought by Mount’s mother, Veitch admitted that no internal investigation into misconduct was ever conducted.

1 Comment

Bruce CarsonSeptember 2, 2018 at 8:11 am

The picture in your article shows a police officer crouching over Darryl Mount. Why is the officer’s expandable night stick extended? This indicates the officer had it out at some point, extended it and then put it back into his holster. Your article only mentioned Tasers that did not work. According to the picture it appears the officer may have used his nightstick. Has anyone looked into that?
I could not help but notice the names of the officers listed in the lawsuit. All of those officers named all seem to have a new title according to the police department’s website. They all seem to have been promoted. Perhaps this is unrelated but it seems very odd that all those involved would get a promotion.